Levin Center at Wayne Law sends two legal interns to U.S. Senate

By Sue

Detroit Legal News

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The Levin Center at Wayne State University Law School chose two law students to serve as legal interns in congressional committee offices in Washington, D.C., this summer.Mallory Fiordellisi of Macomb worked on the Minority Staff of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, the committee’s ranking member. Charles Roarty of Detroit worked on the Minority Staff of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the committee’s ranking member.

Both positions involved work with Senate staff from both parties and a bipartisan approach to congressional oversight. Fiordellisi and Roarty each worked under the supervision of an experienced attorney who is engaged in conducting oversight on behalf of a Senate committee.

This is the second year for the 10-week internships. The Levin Center provided a financial stipend to offset travel and living expenses for the interns, and Levin Center personnel offered ongoing support to the legal interns during their Washington experience.

At Wayne Law, Fiordellisi was a student assistant with the school’s Admissions Office, where she helped with recruitment and orientation. Previously she worked in human resources for Plante & Moran in Southfield.

“My Levin Center Internship has been a fantastic experience,” said Fiordellisi. “The broad jurisdiction of the committee has provided me the opportunity to participate in congressional oversight efforts over many different federal agencies.”

Fiordellisi is a Provost’s Scholar and the recipient of the W.D. Traitel scholarship. She also serves as a student representative on Wayne Law’s Student Board of Governors.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in finance from Oakland University.

Roarty is a research assistant for Associate Professor Eric Zacks. Before law school he worked for General Sports and Entertainment, a sports consulting group.

“Being selected as a Levin Center intern was a great honor,” said Roarty. “It gave me the ability to put the legal skills and knowledge I have learned at Wayne Law to use as a public servant in an important way. This program gave someone who has spent most of his life in Southeastern Michigan a chance to live in Washington, D.C., and experience a different part of the country while representing Wayne Law.”

At Wayne Law, Roarty is cofounder and managing editor of the Wayne State Law School Journal of Business and a member of the school’s Transactional Law Competition. He also is a member of the Sports and Entertainment Law Society’s board of advisors and former president of the organization.

Roarty earned his bachelor’s degree in sport management from the University of Michigan.

Launched in March 2015, the Levin Center at Wayne Law strives to educate future attorneys, business leaders, legislators and public servants on their role overseeing public and private institutions and using oversight as an instrument of change. The center is named in honor of former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan’s longest-serving U.S. senator, who retired at the beginning of 2015 after 36 years in the Senate. Levin serves as chair of the Levin Center and on the law school’s faculty as distinguished legislator in residence.

The Levin Center is supported, in part, by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a nonpartisan, private charitable foundation whose Madison Initiative focuses on strengthening democratic values, norms and institutions.